pie

Mix sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt in a pot. Add cold milk and whisk thoroughly. Slowly heat mixture while constantly whisking. Keep heating until fully mixed and it starts to thicken. Once its thickened and slightly boiling remove from heat. Beat egg in a bowl and whisk into mixture. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Pour into containers and cool in the fridge for a few hours until firm.

For mint chocolate pudding: Separate 1 cup of the milk. Slowly warm in a separate pot with a 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves. Do not boil. Keep warming until mint flavor is as deep as you like. Add into the chocolate mixture as it’s warming. Do not add until the chocolate mixture is already warn.

Peal and core apples then place in a bowl of cold lemon water. Prepare pie crust into pan. Slice apples and place in layers in crust generously sprinkling a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar between each layer. Apples of course cook down so make sure to stack sliced apples until heaping nice and high. Cover the heap with the rolled out 1/2 crust and pinch the edges together to seal the pie. Scramble the egg then brush on the egg to coat the top crust. Puncture the top a couple times with a nice to allow steam to escape.

Place in hot oven at 250 C° for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 150 C°. Bake until you hear the juices boiling for at least 10 minutes.

Make sure your butter is cold! Cube your butter and freeze it for a few hours or overnight.

Combine dry ingredients in a food processor. Add half of the frozen butter cubes and pulse until slightly combined with flour mixture. Add remaining butter and pulse until combined into a coarse texture with small butter chunks. Add ice water a table spoon at a time and pulse after each spoon of water. When its done it should hold together when you pinch it.

Remove mixture from food processor and place on clean smooth surface. Firmly press the mixture into the surface and form into a hokey puck shape. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling into a crust.

When ready, unwrap your puck and place on a lightly floured surface to rest for about 5-10 minutes to slightly warm it up so its more pliable for rolling.

Roll into a 12 inch circle, then gently fold in half and place in a 9 inch pan. Gently unfold and press into the pan. Fill it with something yummy like pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato filling and bake it!

Yummy Pumpkin Squash Pie! Okay, I called it pumpkin squash pie because the one I made is really not pumpkin, its a squash similar to pumpkin. We don’t really have pumpkin here in Israel so I used chunks from this huge squash they sell in the shuk that’s kinda like a pumpkin. Anyway.. I’m sure this works great with just about any kind of squash or even sweet potatoes.

First things first.. the squash. Clean some squash and bake it in the oven until its soft. When its soft, take off the skin and purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. Its really that easy.

The only thing I would say about it is that I covered mine with foil while baking thinking it would dry out too much. Well don’t worry about that. I had to put the cooked squash into a cloth and squeeze out “some” of the water. Holy cow there was a lot of water to squeeze out. Do yourself a favor and just bake it. That’ll do you for the squash purée.

Bake at 220°C for 15 minutes. This shocks the butter and starts to harden the crust making it more flaky later. After 15 minutes lower to 180°C and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour longer or until a poking utensil comes out clean from the center.